1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical devices, and particularly to a portable medical device.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, the size reduction of medical devices has advanced, and the sizes of medical devices such as glucose meters, sphygmomanometers, and pulse rate meters, for example, have been reduced to such a degree that they are portable. Such medical devices are often carried around by patients, medical personnel, and the like, and their frequency of use is high. In particular, the glucose meter is an indispensable medical device for diabetic patients to always carry with them, and thus is a highly personal medical device.
Users of such highly personal devices have a desire to customize the appearance of the devices according to their preferences, thereby expressing their individuality. In response to such a desire, covers that enable the users to customize the appearance of medical devices according to their preference have been proposed recently (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-107092 (hereinafter referred to as Patent document 1) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-313269 (hereinafter referred to as Patent document 2)).
More specifically, Patent documents 1 and 2 disclose a cover on a surface of which a pattern or a design is printed. The user can customize the appearance of the device by using a cover provided with a design of his or her preference. As a result, the user is prevented from losing interest in that particular device model, which encourages the user to use the same device model for a long time. Furthermore, this promotes the extension in life cycle of the device, thereby reducing the environmental load.
Customizing the appearance with a cover is frequently employed in a field of portable phones. Japanese Registered Utility Model Publication No. 3127674 (hereinafter referred to as Patent document 3), for example, discloses a cover to be attached to a casing of a portable phone. The cover is transparent on which neither a pattern nor a design is printed, but a sheet exhibiting a pattern, a design, or a photograph is inserted between the casing of the portable phone and the cover. Thus, changing only the sheet realizes easy alteration in the appearance and easily increases variations in customizations. The cover of Patent document 3 seems to be applicable also to medical devices.
The covers disclosed in the above Patent documents 1 and 2 need to cover not only the front surface but also the side surfaces of a medical device, and thus are structurally voluminous. Therefore, attaching the covers disclosed in the Patent documents 1 and 2 to a medical device causes a problem of obstructing size reduction of the devices.
Moreover, altering the appearance by the covers disclosed in Patent documents 1 and 2 requires replacement of the covers per se. Thus if a user desires to enjoy various appearances, multiple covers with different designs are needed. Then the above-described voluminous structure causes a problem of a lot of storage space.
In contrast, since the cover disclosed in Patent document 3 does not have to cover the side surfaces of a device, and thus is not voluminous, adopting this cover to a medical device appears to prevent obstruction of size reduction of the device. The problem of storage space for a user also appears to be solved.
However, the cover disclosed in Patent document 3 requires attachment to the casing by screw. It further requires arrangement of the sheet in a predetermined position beforehand, before screwing. Thus, with the cover disclosed in Patent document 3, complicated work with a tool is required every time a user attaches and detaches the cover. Employing a screw tightened easily by hand appears to reduce complicatedness of work. In such a case, however, the head of the screw needs to be large, which obstructs size reduction of the device, in the same way as in Patent documents 1 and 2.